Clinton Agenda and Children

Re “Democrats, the Party of Hiding Behind Kids,� by Doug Gamble, Column Right, June 23:

If President Clinton seeks to surround himself with children, if he thinks that the children of today are tomorrow’s future; if he thinks, by protecting children, it is possible to have a better future; then the United States will finally come to be the great country of which our ancestors dreamed.

Unfortunately, there are mean-spirited people who would deny us this opportunity to grow.

I think that curing diaper rash and eliminating acne are better ways to spend government money than buying more bombs, bullets and guns. What is wrong with having a budget meeting at the 2 a.m. feeding time?

Maybe Churchill and FDR should have thought more about children while they were conducting World War II. Certainly the people involved in the Vietnam War should have thought more about children.

I present Gamble with the 1998 mean-spirited award.

JOAN H. JACKSON

Los Angeles

* Column Right does complement Column Left in unusual ways. While Robert Scheer decries the reliability of journalists’ sources, Gamble’s vitriolic rants distort anything that’s evident, both assuming that the general public is only a gullible mass of imbeciles. Perhaps these two columnists should be reminded that along with politicians, lawyers and HMOs, journalists have also managed to carve themselves a niche on the roster of the least-trusted.

LUIS FELIPE ALVAREZ

Los Angeles